10th annual Berkshire Graduates of Color Celebration honoring 47

PITTSFIELD
-- For students of color in Berkshire County, there are successes to be celebrated
and challenges that persist -- a point well-illustrated by two programs in Pittsfield
this week.

At 3 p.m. today, the Women of Color Giving Circle will hold its
10th annual Berkshire Graduates of Color Celebration in the second-floor ballroom
at Spice Dragon restaurant. This year, there are 47 graduates, most of whom are
black or of African descent, who will be honored for completing their high school
graduation requirements -- the Giving Circle's largest turnout yet.

A public forum held earlier this week, however, detailed the
difficulties that black and other non-white students in Pittsfield face in reaching
graduation day.

The local chapter of the NAACP held an "Education Summit"
at Morningside Community School on Monday night to offer community members "an
opportunity to address relevant educational issues in communities of color in Pittsfield."

The event was attended by about 50 people, and about a third
of the people, from ages 4 and up, took some time at the microphone to share their
stories and their concerns for students. Over the course of two hours, participants
gave accounts of discrimination and offered some ideas for resolution.

"We still live in a society where race dominates a lot of
people's thinking," said Will Singleton, president of the local NAACP chapter.
"If we don't come together and work together to make this society fair, we're
going to be in deep, deep trouble."

"We're not going to solve all the ills of society tonight,
but I hope we start a conversation about the lack of success for so many children
of color in our school system," he said.

Berkshire Community College adjunct professor and theater artist
Jamuna Yvette Sirker said it is a "statistical necessity" for all schools
in the country to be prepared to support and offer role models for students of color.

She cited a statistic from the 2012 U.S. census that 50.4 percent
of the nation's births as of July 1, 2011, were of a a minority race --defined as
someone who is not single-race white and not Hispanic.

In Massachusetts, only about 65 percent of the currently enrolled
population of 955,739 public school students are white. Seventeen percent of students
in the state are Hispanic, nearly 9 percent are African-American, and 6 percent
are Asian.

When it comes to graduation rates by race, there is a noticeable
achievement gap. While about 90 percent of white and Asian students graduated on
time in 2013 only about 74 percent of African-American and 67 percent of Hispanic
and Latino students did the same.

During the NAACP forum, several students cited a lack of role
models and encouragement to achieve for students of color. Pittsfield High School
sophomore Sheila Atiemo is a high honors student. She told forum attendees d espite
her academic record, she feels that some teachers in the school have put her or
other students of color down. She said, for example, that one teacher told students
that black men won't attend college. She said another teacher told her she was "retarded"
because she was taking a longer time than her peers to complete an algebra exam
in an honors class, which had mostly white students.

"Sometimes [teachers'] word choices can be harsh,"
Atiemo said.

She said that even if the teachers didn't intend to be mean-spirited,
they would be better to offer encouragement than to cite struggle.

"I feel like people think less of me because of the color
of my skin," Atiemo said. "But I have a lot of potential. I have a lot
of goals and dreams to achieve."

Several other forum participants also spoke about similar issues,
and thanked the NAACP for giving them a venue to share their experiences.

Pittsfield Mayor Daniel Bianchi and Pittsfield Public Schools
Superintendent Jason "Jake" McCandless were on hand during the forum,
responding to questions and taking notes.

Bianchi said his administration is making a concerted effort
to address issues of race and diversity in the city, including the review of hiring
practices and how vacancies are promoted, and reviving the city's Human Rights Commission,
which had been dormant since 1999.

"We have schools that are better than others at doing this
work. We have principals who are better than others at doing this work," said
McCandless. "We're working around policies, but to me it's about practice."

Audience members suggested having more programs to teach students
about race and diversity; creating confidential ways that students can report incidents
of racism or discrimination, and creating a school-community partnership or task
force to further address issues of race and education.

McCandless noted that schools and staff are working on cultural
competency training with local organization Multicultural BRIDGE.

Executive Director Gwendolyn Hampton VanSant, who moderated the
forum, said that BRIDGE staff will be heading to Conte Community School next for
training. She said Stearns and Crosby elementary schools are in the process of putting
up mosaic art that students made celebrating their diversity.

"We need to teach kids to be respectful," she said.
"Our kids and our schools are just mirroring our community, and we need to
look at ourselves and our values."